tonight millions of people from the east coast to mid west are reeling from super storm, sandy, the most devastating storm, killing 50 people and knocking out power to almost eight million people and it's not over yet. right now, the monster storm, sandy bringing rain from maine to illinois. we're tracking sandy. rick? >> it's a very cold storm. storms here way up across parts of canada. still down across south carolina into kentucky. tennessee, north carolina. still rain, still windy conditions. good news is that it's better than it was 24 hours ago.

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we've had big storms moving across new england this, is where heaviest rain has been today. some storms a little bit severe at times getting kind of a severe threat maybe some strong winds going to be diminishing during overnight hours, we stillr% ñ have snow to deal with, maybe another six inches by the time this is done n general, the storm beginning to weaken a little bit and kind of unwind itself from the way it was winds now into 20s from philadelphia to new york city up towards grant. a pocket where winds are not bad towards the center of where that storm s winds into mid-30s in indianapolis, detroit. we're not going to be talking about super increase in power outages. take a look at colors on the map this, color representative of about 30 miles per hour wind gusts. to go forward in time, it winds here around great lakes

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into the day on thursday. we're going to be dealing with winds from this storm. we'll see showers from time to time. so showers will be a system to unwind which is great. temperatures into 30s into appalachians. 39 in detroit. strange to see 62 in maine and temperatures so much colder in the south this, is pulled much, much colder air into canada. it will fill in here across parts of the east. those people without power having a number of cool nights. >> greta: rick, i know hurricane season runs at the end of november. but so, i mean we sort of think this is the last because we've been hit hard. is there anything we should be fearing coming up on the horizon? >> there is not. we rapidly see hurricane

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activity at least traditionally wind down. so there isn't anything model wise out there that is a big concern for us. it's good news. >> greta: cold temperatures i see behind us reach out to the ocean, i suppose the ocean is getting colder. so that probably good news, right? >> it is. ocean waters have been warm. the gulf stream went over the gulf stream. that is one of the things we saw yesterday morning. it entense fied from over colder air moving there. we might see numbers cooling down quickly. >> greta: rick, thank you. >> you bet. >> we're going to have more live storm coverage but right now, presidential race. the election now one week away. tonight a new gallup poll giving us a look at early voting. polls showing governor romney leading president obama 52% to 45% among voter who's already cast their ballots. newt gingrich joins us, good

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evening, sir. your thoughts on the gallup poll of early voters? >> if it's accurate it's devastating for obama. obama played a tremendous amount of effort into building a ground game. they're confident they can turn the vote out early. they talked about it with a sense of achievement. if this is correct, it's a remarkable result. republicans have been saying during all of the snap shots well, don't worry about early voting because republican voters tend to be older, they love to vote on election day. all of a sudden these numbers i'm surprised and i frankly thought i would not have been surprised to see it reversed and see it obama, 52, romney, 45. so this is a shocking number. but it fits something that you may have seen late last week. gallup took all of this

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september questions, 19,000 people pretty big universe. looking at all of them together as one group. and said the surprise is that this electorate looks more republican but as republicans are much, much more likely to vote, democrats less likely to vote. they said this is closer to the to 10 electorate than 2008. that is based on huge samples. if that is accurate, then virtually every poll we've seen is wrong, probably favors obama by three or four points more than he's going to get. all polls, poll sisters went in. they jiggered numbers to get back to a sample they believed was accurate. gallup arguing that that is wrong. that we're seeing a shift towards an electorate much more republican than four years ago. >> i think of gallup sort of a

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little bit, i don't know stojy. there is no sparkle. they don't take risks. i tend to rely on gap yul because they've been around forever. this is a big number. 52-45. coo they just have gotten this wrong? >> this conforms to what they claim they're seeing. they came out and said they thought romney was up six points. i have adopted and you've heard me talk to this before, james carvel rule. he told me his standard was if you're the incumbent you've been in people's living rooms four years. they know who you are. you get the last poll. and the last poll for obama is between 44 and 47 or 48%. so this would imply you're seeing carvel rule coming into affect. i decided last week that i

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said it's probably going to be a six point vote or more in favor of romney. probably above 300 elector yil votes. this number tonight would fit that kind of a sweep because i think republicans will vote more on election day that. begins to tell me could be 54, 46 maybe by the time you get to election day. >> we did printout what you said last week in case i needed it. i'll see after election day how close you are. in terms of the storm does that do anything, i think steve hays refered to something like statture gap that he was losing his statture gap. now, this will make him appear more presidential and the opportunity. i don't mean to demean the president or the storm or light of the loss but just the hard reality is that election day is tuesday.

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>> i think the storm is so big, damage so wide spread and intense, that you know, president is going to, he's hopefully doing his job, what he should be doing. on the other hand the storm is going to dampen some of his turn out of his supporter who's are less enthusiastic. so i think it's kind of a wash. if something really bad happens and the federal system collapses then he'd gaet the blame. he's doing the right thing and i think it's correct for chris christie to thank him and say the president is being help of. i suspect every governor will tell you that they're paying attention. i don't think it helps him much. >> greta: what about friday when jobs report comes out? any impact two, three days out

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from tuesday? >> the problem for obama is any time the number gets better it turns out that is because people dropped out of the work force. and the last report was that this last quarter every new job unbalanced was a government job. i don't know of anyone who is confident about next year. i have seen small businesses out in missouri for todd akin. i don't see anyone out here saying i'm reved up. i think you could have a dramatic recovery if romney wins because there are a tremendous number of entrepreneurs who would like to do something if they had there was a sense of confidence. now if it goes up again, if it's 8.2 then, i think it's a big problem for obama. >> ohio. the ever important state. there is an ad that says that

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obama's chrysler deal undermines u.s. workers. gm's ceo came out and said that the latest romney ad is politics at its worst this, is going to play out before voters in ohio. your thoughts on this? >> i was in ohio yesterday. ways in hamilton county, cincinnati then over in lebanon, and then, over in delaware county. goit a good taste of southwestern ohio. last time, obama carried ohio. it is rob portman's base. they're very, very proud of them. republicans told me they believe they're going to carry hamilton county maybe by 23,000 votes. that would be a swing of 50,000 votes by itself that would guarantee carrying ohio. people in lebanon and warren

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county very republican. tremendously enthusiastic. they're going to vote bigger than they voted last time for mccain. in delaware county it was a very rural area we were in. i couldn't find any obama voters. obama is going to be competitive. he's going to have cleveland and areas around dayton. i think ohio probably going to end up electing josh landel to the senate. all energy development, natural gas, oil coming out in canton, youngstown, then along river valley. the war on coal which you'll remember is a hunl story all of the things coming together. i think ohio will now go for rom nee. he has momentum. i tell you that when you start talking auto thing, you realize obama administration gave chrysler to fiat for zero

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dollars? i mean, you can't imagine a businessman like mitt romney turning over that much real property to a foreign company for zero dollars. so owe think the longer you look at the auto bailout the less attractive it s romney's approach was to guarantee loans and waivers after a traditional bankruptcy court, what united airlines and a number other companies have gone through. that i think people goring to say that might have been a better road. >> that is sort of the global view talking about jobs in ohio. you know? you don't necessarily look at the big tick pic tour, looks like do i have a job or not? >> the governor pointed out the net number of new jobs out of the bailout was 400 for the state. all other new jobs and if you're a gm worker are you grateful to obama?

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do you think you've worked hard so your company survived? at some point obama claiming credit for your job begins to get thin. >> greta: benghazi. we've spent a lot of time talking about it. and frankly there are a lot of remaining questions and nobody sort of set out what happened. we've got bits and pieces and weird stories about videos and we've had, it's an incomplete picture, other news organizations aren't particularly pursuing this. we are and a few others. i'm curious is benghazi an issue that is one that is in any way related to the voters have interest in it. >> and in terms of the election i was talking with senator ron johnson of wisconsin said every victory center he went to people were saying tell me about benghazi. people in ohio, people have been asking about benghazi.

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there is a rumor that two networks have i mails telling a counter trift group to stand down but they're a group in realtime trying to mobilize marines and c 130s and were told stand down, do nudging this is not a terrorist attack. if that is true, and i've been told this by a fairly reliable u.s. senator if that is true and comes out, i think it raises enormous questions about the president's role and national security advisors role, secretary of defense he said don't go. and that is i think very dubis. the president said he had instructions to do everything they can to secure american personnel.

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is obama not issuing that order? i think you're going see this come back tomorrow and the next day. it's suspended two days by storm coverage. i think tomorrow, you'll see benghazi come back. other big story is on corruption and extraordinary waste in the solar power grants and direct involvement by the obama white house including the president.mu> involving billions of dollars. i suspect that is going to break, wednesday and thursday of this week. >> the benghazi story i regret this coming out now. there is going to be criticism anyone doing sit doing it for political reasons or whatever. we do have inconsistent stories. and that seems like the right thing to do in my mind. when you have two stories you should try to pursue the government.

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and#zep it's unfortunately sortf looped into this election time. and i think it makes it almost unfortunate. i'd like to see what happened. i'd like administration to speak out bit. do you agree? timing is you have? i think the timing is terrible. why is the president of the united states his secretary of defense, why haven't they been able to tell us the truth? this is not that hard. all documents have to be available. it should be possible to sort it out. this has been a cover up, you're right. it's sad it's happening just before election but it has been over six weeks now and we can't get the facts out. four americans killed including american embass door. an american facility turns out

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may not have been a consulate. it may have been quote a facility which has a different legal framing. this is a mess. we apparently lost a number of secret documents. we have no idea what those documents are. there is no effort to help. we now know because of kernel west work there were marines available. there were consider 130s available. fighter aircraft available and help could have gotten there in about an hour in terms of air power and two hours in terms of marines, the fight went on seven hours this, is a terrible situation. >> speaker you mentioned ben west, he's joining us. i hope you join us before election night. >> look forward to it, very much. >> thank you, sir. >> straight ahead those questions about libya. they're still unanswered was

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help denied to americans under that terrorist attack? bing west is here, our live coverage of monster storm sandy continues. a new death toll just announced. 50 people now dead. latest on sandy coming up. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world.

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four americans murdered by terrorists in libya. the deadly assault going on for hours, fox news reporting request for help from cia operatives at the benghazi compound were denied. is someone to blame? bing west is the former secretary of defense, and author of "into the fire". he joins us, good evening, sir. >> good evening, greta. >> greta: our information is that he asked for help at some point or asked to go over and help. i'm curious if request for help is made tell me from your own professional background what is the chains of command? >> it was clear. that the president was sitting in the oval office when the fight began. he called in the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs. president obama now tells us that he gave the directive immediately for the military

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to do everything it needed to do to save our diplomats. secretary of defense then turns to the chairman and says "i want to execute order" once the chairman of the joint chiefs hears those words, yes, sir, he's right there. he calls the commander in charge of africa, general hamm he says get those assets moving and a written execute order will follow but get the assets moving so that is clear. but what makes it unclear is that then the secretary of defense said oh, no. general dempsey and general hamm agree with me we should do nothing well, which is it now? is it president of the united states as commander in chief saying do it? and secretary of defense saying no, sir? that doesn't make sense to me. it's easy for the president of

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the united states to come forward and tell the american people here is my execute order because there is no such thing as the military going off and doing something without that execution order so i'd like to see the execution order. >> would the president have a case to say look this is an emergency situation? things are developing now. i want to you speak to your general in the theater and have him make a judgment whether or not this is a wise, smart to do anything point? >> president reagan used to give those orders all the time. up to you guys. do what you think is best. that would be fine. he'd say sir do i have permission to enter libyan space? president says yes. done. general hamm had a detachment of 130 marines assigned to him and had all kinds of aircraft.

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they could have been there within two hours, they would have been more than willing to go. general hamm had assets. he told i congressman he was never given an execute order to enter libya. that is different than what the commander in chief is saying. secretary of defense saying something else, two generals i am disappointed. they're hurting the military by not coming forward and saying something. when general petraeus saying you and the cia didn't do anything he said wait a minute. nobody in the cia ever gave an order not to go in. so... general petraeus said it's national security council. general dempsey, any time he wanted could say yes, i received the execute order or no, i never received an execute order. that might make him unpopular with the president. i think he ohs it to the

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american public. otherwise we think our military is going along in a way they shouldn't go along you didn't mention secretary of state hillary clinton. i take the post of the secretary of state would not be in the discussion typically? is that right? >> i am sure that she was in these discussions. but she isn't in the military chain of command. military chain is command she would have given advice. her advice would have been should you go into libyan territory or not. the interesting thing is that her embassy had the courage to immediately take a plane which was as far as our military base and put six americans on that plane and said go over there, 400 miles away get in that fight. try to help. they would never have done that if they hadn't gone back to state department and said we're going to send in reinforcements.

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you getting more confused. state department willing to do something. have you our military not willing to do something. that is really bizarre. >> where is the breakdown? i'm trying to look. i've made a tree of names you've given me trying to figure out what do you see is this -- where do things breakdown in this? from president obama to general demps dwree general hamm. >> at the top. right there. if the president gave the order that he told the american people he did, he was clear he said the minute i heard about this, i directed the military take all steps needed to secure our personnel to keep them alive. that is an execute order. if the president gave that order that order is written down by the national security council advisor, none that have is on the record.

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>> and do you use the word execute order or directive? >> no. woe have to say what he told the american public. he said to the american public i told military to do everything they needed to do. so it's either under your think sthag he said either president obama gave the directive and said he gave it. it's insect of defense pin yetta or general dempsey is where it locks up, then? >> well, secretary pin yetta said general dempsey and general hamm and a agreed to do nothing because we didn't have enough information. wait a minute. your president just told to you do something. the three of you have just said no?

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the president no. do i believe that is what happened? no. can we square this? absolutely. the this doesn't have to be a debate. all the president has to do is show the execute order. i have serious doubts any such order exist. >> bing, thank you this, continues to be quite mystery. there are a lot of unanswered questions hopefully we'll get answers.. >> i think the sooner our military gets out of it, the better. >> greta: thank you, sir. >> okay. >> up next, our political panel is back and a poll of voters giving governor romney good news, will it impact the election in the end? also scenes of destruction up and down the east coast. more on aftermath of sandy coming up. ♪

sandy washed away homes but in one neighborhood fire destroyed 80-1 hub homes. firefighters battling six alarm fire in a flooded neighborhood. they had to rescue people by boat. the fire spreading from home to home. it took nine hours to contain the blaze. dozens of homes were destroyed. no one was seriously hurt.

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tonight new gallup poll giving us a sneak peek. polls showing governor romney leading president obama among voter who's have already cast the ballot. our panel is back. and byron, your thoughts? >> this is a big deal. because at the same time in 2008, fwal updid the same poll. and barack obama was leading john mccain among early voters. in several key states ob dwrauma had a huge lead. he needs to do that again. romney likely to win amongst those voter who's go to the polls on election day itself. he build up a lead that his opponent can't overtake him on

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election day. i was in ohio. the campaign was making a huge deal. the president saying on the stump and campaign officials were saying it. people going door to door were pushing early voting. >> unless this reflects early voters in ohio going to tell us if this could with 52-46. >> that is light. -- right. ohio during this storm time, this is ads and romney ran about the auto bailout whether or not goits tok shipped to china. there has been a reaction. there has been gm and chrysler officials saying ad isn't true, it's false. a tremendous push back and more as to the obama campaign.

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i think that that is a state where i think there is enough momentum to be coasting if not towards victory, that is a tricky, i think romney people racked up early votes in ohio because that is a critical state. >> this early voter poll nice and wide, 52%, president obama, 46%. your thoughts on this? >> if these are early votes that is somehow distorting this national average. a agree with the take that it's better for mitt romney's campaign to be in this position because president obama put a great emphasis across the country.

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i recommend to people he had a piece in the examiner. i found the thing he wrote up today. >> what do you tell!b us? do you have to wait to read it?. >> romney people feel they have a certain amount of momentum in ohio. you talk to them, mayor, you know pushing hard this early voting thing they think is helping them. that they're going to keep the lead small enough so they'll win on election day. so if you talk to the romney people they know what is going on. >> i think it doesn't make sense obama can hold off romney in wisconsin you're seeing a surge in polls for mitt romney you're seeing him

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probably going to take florida in most of the battle grounds. and i don't know why in and and scott walker earlier this summer by the national party hundreds and paul ryan saying i just don't know how they couldn't win wisconsin. if you look, it's tied oof 20 seconds, steve on your home state of wisconsin. >> it's a fact there is a dry run on june 5th. i think it suggests wisconsin is in play. if they make efforts to put there, i think republicans can win it. >> viewers should go to gretawire.com. about what it's done since 1996. keeps swinging back and forth will make you dizzy.

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panel just stand by. straight ahead four americans murdered in ben gazy. we don't know what happened. will it impact elections? next. look, if you have copd like me, you know it can be hard to breathe, and how that feels. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation.

seven weeks later we do not have all of the answers will the ob rauma administration learn more before the election? >> i don't think we're going

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to learn about it for a couple reasons, besides fox thus, there hasn't been a lot of curiosity. and the other thing is that a lot of what we know about this is because representative darrell issa has been pushing the obama administration to reveal more information. they're not going to conduct a big investigation between now and election day. i think sadly, most of what we've learned about this is going to come after the election. >> there is an report sent tonight. >> the questions need to be answered and that is the truth. >> they do need to be answered and should have been a while ago. this as i said before i think is a terrible story for the obama administration. and i think it will be a big story in 2013 this, i don't know what they're hiding or

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what they're doing. but i think that the impact is really negligentable. the story of october no matter what is that mitt romney became a new candidate there was a us nu race october 3. and that was the story in october. the economy is the issue. unlike byron i do believe that people can't stand either of the candidates. and they already can't stand the obama administration they're going to decide on the economy. and economy alone. >> the one area is issues of war. and it has this to point out this isn't just arising on the eve of the election but going on now six weeks.

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benghazi as we approach tuesday? >> it has. look, you can be a casual consumer and understand they have to the been straight forward with the american people from the beginning. whether selling us different stories or telling us things or whether the president saying just last week that he has shared every piece of information with the american people as soon as he got it. that is false. he hasn't been. his administration withheld information. it's an outrage. i think we don't get answers to the questions because we're an election season. it doesn't mean we can't demand answer asks won't get answers to the questions after the election. and people on the ground in

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benghazi and people that fought there deserve those answers. >> criticism administration does have of fox news going after it they can end it all. they have to answer the question. they can end the story will end if they will answer it. but no one is going tell what happened. >> there is six weeks. so now what? they pushed it up to the election? it's election time. >> i'm telling you answers are going to come as a result of inquiries from congress. that is if republicans keep control of congress. >> i think if the congress splits there is going to be reports investigations will be concluded and this is going to come out in november. >> i think someone who knows something can come forward.

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panel, thank you. straight ahead will the governor and president be flipping burgers soon? why would they do that? you'll find out next. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

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now economy remaining front and center, what are the concerns of business owners? >> this story of white castle began in 1921 in wichita, kansas thanks to a young entrepreneur. today over 91 years later it's still family owned and operated. we spoke with the family spokesman who says there is a.x lot at stake in this election.

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>> how big is white castle? i see them all over the mid west. >> we're a family owned business with 10,000 employees and 409 restaurants in 12 states. white castle is very much family run,. >> you guys looking into this election what matters to you? what are you focused on? >> i think the big focus for us in business is restaurants and our family own td bigs is more certainty. we have unanswered questions. affordable care act. there is nudging affordable about it. whether rove room knee or president obama if you can offer a few bits of wisdom or advice if they fine tune their message to guys like you, an icon in the food industry. but still american family owned what would have been

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three things you need to drill down on? >> i would say focusing on what it is like in the real world. i think people in washington live in a textbook world. that is great but the fact of the matter when we get $1 in sales we don't get to keep that $1. i'd encourage to you work at white castle get behind the counter and see what a day is like from an employee at white castle. he think there needs to be a big focus in terms of big costs and burdens being put on business in four years, we've seen toughest challenge we've seen in our history other than the great depression, we've made it through great depression, world war ii this, is one of the toughest times we've faced we've been focused on doing the right things and having patient capitol. providing opportunity for growth our team members crave.

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the third thing is looking to the future to understand where to invest and where to eliminate barriers to growth. giving people a chance to vote with their dollars. the american consumer will come back stronger but now, they're making leftovers last longer, we call that lq. there is so much uncertainty. they want to keep every penny. we want to encourage that confidence we know is the greatest country on the planet. so we think there is a lot to be said for that. >> the president says he wants to continue to provide tax cuts for businesses like yours. but you don't see it coming? >> you know, what we've seen is the family owned business president obama has been clear on his views of the estate tax. we think one of the greatest things on the economy is allowing family owned

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businesses to remain family owned. impediments to that is an estate tax to backwards it forces family-owned businesses whether family farms or business like white castle to reconsider their structures in terms of how they can continue to be prosperus and give back to team members. we know it's something we call patient capitol to do the right thing by the team members and people because they're investing in the future, when you put a state tax into the mix that is not just policy for allowing family businesses to continue to grow. >> coming up where is maiga storm sandy headed next? a check on sandy's path, next.

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monster storm sandy, what is the latest, rick? >> last couple images here on the radar you can see that they just begin to fade off just a little bit. less precipitation falling is good news after this rough stretch we're going to deal with it, still. it's a big storm, winds 20-po miles per hour for a lot of people and scattered showers. that is better than yesterday. take a look at some video. across areas of new jersey very extreme this, is from long beach island. this is where heaviest storm surge came down this, goes

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through barrier island. water went over the barrier islands just causing damage to that community. let's talk about one other community this, is breezy point, queens. it's western most barrier island there. last night we saw pictures starting to come from the community. winds there were about 80 miles per hour. and all homes have been covered in that storm surge. the fire started from likely an electric short. winds spreading through this town and destroying over 80 homes. death toll noe now is just risen to 50. greta. >> greta: thank you. just looking at the home wez have deaths and people lost all of their memories and everything in those fires. it's terrible, rick, thank you. thank you for being with us tonight. we'll see you again